Sunday, June 17, 2012

Annihilators: Earthfall TPB

What a sad way for DnA’s classic run on cosmic Marvel to come to an end. This story probably could have been a great close, but unfortunately a poor choice of artist didn’t let that happen. I’ve enjoyed Tan Eng Huat’s art before, mostly on his Doom Patrol work. But he is not the right artist for straight-up, normal super-heroics. There is a disconnect here in his style versus the classic look necessary for DnA’s script. Faces end up smooshed. The battle scenes are hard to follow. There seems to be perspective problems in multiple panels (there are a few scenes where there are explosions in the background that seem to be the response to Gladiator’s punches in the foreground.) Again, I don’t want to be mean, because I have liked this artists work in other projects, but the clash of style caused such a disconnect that this was honestly a chore to read.

DnA deliver a story that serves as a nice capstone to their run involving the Universal Church of Truth AND the Magus. That’s a brilliant new concept AND a classic Marvel villain. But the Church ends up as a bunch of faceless, generic villains that don’t deserve to be on the same page as the Avengers or Annihilators.

I’m particularly interested in the interaction Quasar has with his old team as he tries to explain the galactic view he’s been forced to take. This is Wisconsin’s small-town hero operating on a galactic scale and telling Cap to keep things in perspective! I would have liked a bit more of that type of material, along with some more of Ikon’s fascination with Quasar. There was no time, though, because this book was running from explosion to explosion. I love action books, but I like it to look a bit prettier.